During the past few years, we have seen artists shape the industry in many ways. People such as Taylor Swift, Adele, and the band One Republic have managed to make big companies such as Spotify change the way that they work towards a more fair business model to those who make up their platforms: musicians. Below we will cover 3 major events that have happened in the industry triggered by some of the biggest artists out there.
Adele - removing one option on Spotify
Streaming platforms have slowly tarnished something that is so important to artists. The art of listening to something from start to finish without being able to control or change the way the artists have designed it to be listened to. Listening to records on a vinyl player doesn’t allow you to alter the form of the way something is listened to and you have them listen to it the way the artist desired it to be done so. Building a record is something that artists take a lot of time to do and some artists have felt like putting their music on streaming platforms ruins the story that they are trying to tell and this ruins all the work they have put in from the beginning. This is a process that takes a lot of artists a really long time to figure out and it has been ruined a large part of the listening process for the audience. When Adele released her newest album, she reached out publicly to Spotify to remove the shuffle option on albums and the change was done almost immediately. It really shows that the artists are still the ones who rule the industry as Adele was able to make music mogul Spotify change the way that it works for the artists benefit.
Taylor Swift - taking music off Spotify
Pop princess rebels against something we all know and love - streaming platforms. As an average user, one of the main reasons that we have transitioned towards listening to music on these platforms is because for starters it’s easy and either free or relatively cheap. Who remembers the revolt that Taylor caused in 2014 when she removed ALL of her catalog from Spotify? She decided that she wanted to boycott the platform as she did not agree with the freemium policy Spotify is built on as it is not fair towards musicians. Coming from a time where life has changed drastically for musicians due to the pandemic, Taylor is completely right in saying that a platform built for musicians should allow them to make a living off of it.
Taylor Swift ft. Chris Stapleton - I Bet You Think About MeOne Republic - Cryptocurrencies
In the current times, music and tech are two topics that are starting to go hand in hand more often. Cryptocurrencies and NFTs are the two biggest topics that are interesting artists. In the past few weeks, OneRepublic took the step to become one of the first major-label artists to accept crypto as payment for their gig in Vienna. This is a curious discovery as it shows the value as to which people place on what and how they are paid.
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